QFF Platinum Benefits

[kempvet]

e.g. Yesterday I booked a JASA MEL-xSYD-LAX for 96K QFF points and $504 all up (including the $30 CC levy).

Being a WP, this will earn 220 SC's and 19,978 QFF points, so base points cost is 76K.

(Also, I earn 1230 from my CC and up to 3250 in pro-rata loyalty bonus.)

To book this as a classic costs 96K points and $350 in +++. No points or SC's are earned.

It is only in the last few weeks that I have done the number crunching, and I am starting to see examples like the one that you have given, just hope that the other half never finds this out, just think, a few years ago the points would expire if not used, so one year I just cashed in 300,000 FFpoints points when I could have done the above, SYD-LAX JASA twice!!!!!

 

[kempvet]

I mean SYD-LAX-SYD JASA twice!!!!!

 

[elbarto]

A qantas platinum travelling business class is not allowed to use the Business class dining room in BA's JFK lounge. In fact I dare say a Qantas platinum in any class on qantas metal ex JFK would not be allowed into the business class dining room.

BA is very stingy with access to its dining rooms!

Maybe QF were being stingy and didn't want to pay BA for the access to the dining room so they didn't negotiate it into the lounge access agreement.

 

[pagingjoan]

e.g. Yesterday I booked a JASA MEL-xSYD-LAX for 96K QFF points and $504 all up (including the $30 CC levy).

Being a WP, this will earn 220 SC's and 19,978 QFF points, so base points cost is 76K.

(Also, I earn 1230 from my CC and up to 3250 in pro-rata loyalty bonus.)

To book this as a classic costs 96K points and $350 in +++. No points or SC's are earned.

Serfty,
Having only recently discovered the joys of JASAs, I have booked a number of them using points only. What do you see as the benefit of points plus cash?
Does it depend solely on your points availability? Or on your own assessment of the $ value of the points additional to the Classic Award rate for the seat?
Have I been less than strategic in using the additional points, rather than topping up with cash?
[Hope this is not too OT - but does follow up on the direction the thread has taken.]
pj

 

[markis10]

Dropping the points down and paying cash is done simply because the value QF place on those points you are paying for is a lot less than what you can get them on the street for, in the example above you are getting 50000 points for $500-600, its not often you get the chance to buy them at that price!

 

[pagingjoan]

Dropping the points down and paying cash is done simply because the value QF place on those points you are paying for is a lot less than what you can get them on the street for, in the example above you are getting 50000 points for $500-600, its not often you get the chance to buy them at that price!

Not clear to me how you arrive at 50,000 points, so maybe I'm missing something?
I'm assuming that the JASA points-only rate was around 135K, for example, so some 40K points for the $500-600.
The netting off effect (plus points earned on the JASA flight) will be the same.
So is it only the simple calculation of add on $s divided by points in excess of the Classic?
The the cutoff rate on the conversion is down to the individual assessment of value, I suppose?

 

[markis10]

Not clear to me how you arrive at 50,000 points, so maybe I'm missing something?
I'm assuming that the JASA points-only rate was around 135K, for example, so some 40K points for the $500-600.
The netting off effect (plus points earned on the JASA flight) will be the same.
So is it only the simple calculation of add on $s divided by points in excess of the Classic?
The the cutoff rate on the conversion is down to the individual assessment of value, I suppose?

If you have a look at this JASA example (it varies dramatically by flight and day in terms of number of points needed), you can see the original cost of 151K, this has been dropped to the classic award level for $600, making those 55000 points cost the $600 odd dollars:

 

[pagingjoan]

If you have a look at this JASA example (it varies dramatically by flight and day in terms of number of points needed), you can see the original cost of 151K, this has been dropped to the classic award level for $600, making those 55000 points cost the $600 odd dollars:

Yes, it certainly does vary dramatically!
I've booked several LAX-MEL and MEL-LAX recently - but I have not seen the 150K example before.
Mine have all been booked at a maximum of 135K. [I think one was lower than that.]
So the cost over and above the base 96K, taking taxes etc into account, makes a reasonable difference, compared with the 150K calculation.
Thanks for the response. I'm still learning the nuances.
pj

 

[markis10]

Its all about making those points go further, in the example I used, if one had only 170K of points, you could stretch that to two awards by paying the cash if you are Platinum:

166K Balance
96K + $600 odd for flight one
20K earned

That leaves 96K for the next redemption! ASAs are very good value when there are double points on, such as the offer that finished Dec 23.

 

[pagingjoan]

Its all about making those points go further, in the example I used, if one had only 170K of points, you could stretch that to two awards by paying the cash if you are Platinum:

166K Balance
96K + $600 odd for flight one
20K earned

That leaves 96K for the next redemption! ASAs are very good value when there are double points on, such as the offer that finished Dec 23.

Yes, I understand. Points availability for me was not the issue, as I had >1.5M when I began booking JASAs, having used points almost exclusively for upgrades in the past.
Now looking at the world differently!
Your point about the double points is very well made!
Thank you again.
pj

 

[serfty]

Serfty,
Having only recently discovered the joys of JASAs, I have booked a number of them using points only. What do you see as the benefit of points plus cash?
Does it depend solely on your points availability? Or on your own assessment of the $ value of the points additional to the Classic Award rate for the seat?
Have I been less than strategic in using the additional points, rather than topping up with cash?
[Hope this is not too OT - but does follow up on the direction the thread has taken.]
pj

Aside from what markis10 has advised, I see it as 220 SC's for an additional cost of $150 (over the classic) less whatever the value of 20,000 QFF points is.

That 220 SC's is nearly [SUP]1[/SUP]/[SUB]5[/SUB] or 18.3% of WP requalification.

It's interesting to note from markis10's examples that currently SYD-xMEL-LAX is about $100 more than MEL-xSYD-LAX at the 96K point level (although it does earn a few more points).

The JASA I booked had a start value of that ~135K.

 

[pagingjoan]

Aside from what markis10 has advised, I see it as 220 SC's for an additional cost of $150 (over the classic) less whatever the value of 20,000 QFF points is.

That 220 SC's is nearly [SUP]1[/SUP]/[SUB]5[/SUB] or 18.3% of WP requalification.

It's interesting to note from markis10's examples that currently SYD-xMEL-LAX is about $100 more than MEL-xSYD-LAX at the 96K point level (although it does earn a few more points).

The JASA I booked had a start value of that ~135K.

An interesting interpretation - and thanks for the response.
My JASAs have been around the same value and the FASA (on the 380) was around the 135 plus the standard upgrade points, totalling about 180K (without having the detail to hand to confirm).
I did see just now that there is a FASA MEL-LAX for around the 180K mark available - amongst all the ZillionK options - on 11 Dec.
May be of use to someone, although I should probably post that on a different thread.
Or are they commonplace????

 

[serfty]

I'm doing a 144K + $495 FASA on QF93 in April; booked it back in July.

It basically a matter of planning well ahead, just like one would do for any QF Award booking in premium cabins.

FWIW, these are not really Platinum Benefits in line with this thread title. (Anyone with enough points can get an xASA such as these as they do not come out of the special allocations for elites.)

 

[pagingjoan]

I'm doing a 144K + $495 FASA on QF93 in April; booked it back in July.

It basically a matter of planning well ahead, just like one would do for any QF Award booking in premium cabins.

FWIW, these are not really Platinum Benefits in line with this thread title. (Anyone with enough points can get an xASA such as these as they do not come out of the special allocations for elites.)

Hmmm....
Planning ahead!
I do understand the words, and even the concept.
But persuading my SO is another challenge altogether.

 

[DC3]

yes, I have also heard this talked about by staff at the QClub, apparently platinum FFs that have built status credits less than Gold can be dropped to gold if they say have only 200 status credits, as long as they have flown at least 4 Qantas ticketed flights in the qualifying year, but it is on a case by case basis, I guess that someone who has achieved platinum with a large status credit run on AA may not get it, compared to someone who often flies the Qantas domestic brand, none of the staff seem to know the rules regarding a soft landing

I've bolded the 4 QF flights section, above.

I'm having a lean year with flying QF, this year, and probably won't make 4 flights on QF. However, I was under the impression that the 4 x QF flights only related to maintaining existing status.

I'm not aware of needing 4 x QF flights for a soft landing. Is this documented somewhere, please?

 

[trippin_the_rift]

I'm not aware of needing 4 x QF flights for a soft landing. Is this documented somewhere, please?

AFAIK you don't need ANY flights for a soft landing.

If you don't fly you can't use it anyway - so a soft landing costs the airline zippo.

 

[MrJetset]

The F lounge is long and sectioned off so walk thur and see where you will be most comfortable. If you turn left far end is seating and computer with basic food, walking back - champagne bar, kids closed in room, maybe couple of small areas then the major dining and lastly F dining room.

As most have stated there is dining in F lounge T3 (Not use T5 - been to concorde only) my thoughts are of the F dining room is it for F pax on late departure so you don't have to eat on flight and have max sleeping time. My flights have been day flight from T3 and the private dining room has been closed.

At LHR T3 I have accessed the F dining room countless times in the AM, and noone asked for a F boarding pass. Most of the time I was connecting from QF in J, otherwise from BA in F. The only time I have been asked to produce my F boarding pass was when flying home on BA15. So while strictly it may be for F pax, you'll find in the AM it's hardly enforced. From memory the dining at T3 GF is the same as T5 GF so I really don't understand the different access requirements.

At JFK, dining is reserved solely for those on 'Sleeper Services' on BA metal, you need an invite issues at check in, see British Airways - Club World: Sleeper Service . The food is buffet style and rather unimpressive, however vastly superior than the tiny F lounge which is unfortunate.

 

[Mal]

At LHR T3 I have accessed the F dining room countless times in the AM, and noone asked for a F boarding pass. Most of the time I was connecting from QF in J, otherwise from BA in F. The only time I have been asked to produce my F boarding pass was when flying home on BA15. So while strictly it may be for F pax, you'll find in the AM it's hardly enforced.

From memory there are only access restrictions at night. Rest of time its a standard dining room for all.


Sent from my GT-I9100 using AustFreqFly

 

[Deleted member]

not really, too many flights with points, I am now shifting more points flights to originate from the USA where there is hardly any surchages, and paying for flights from SYD (the surchages return to LAX are sometimes over 700 dollars if booked with the 96,000 points) where if I buy the fare outright, it is about 1300 dollars, a loyalty bonus with one of my wholesalers converts 3 of their points to 2 QFF points, or you can cash out the wholesaler points, 150,000 wholesaler points gives you 1500 dollars cash or 100,000 QFF points. I am 900 dollars better off not converting the wholesaler points and simply cashing them in and paying for the flight outright, in addition I can earn status credits and also FF points. Diners club was offering a 4 point per dollar spent at one of my wholesalers, so I ending up earning 800,000 points a year doing what I had to do anyway.

End of story, I have been very lazy with the use of points as they came too easy and need to do something about it. After reading a few of these posts, I have reallised that there are first class trips to Europe and northen asia from the US that I could have had, but have blown too many points getting to the USA from SYD! Hope the other half never reads thses posts!




yes, badly need to read these posts, thanks for the advice, only time that I got an upgrade to business on Qantas was when the couldn't read my boarding pass in Singapore, in their haste they printed another one, no seats left in economy or premium economy so it placed me in business!

And look more closely at ASA (J and F)


If it doesn't matter if you win or lose.......How come they keep score?

 

[markis10]

AFAIK you don't need ANY flights for a soft landing.

If you don't fly you can't use it anyway - so a soft landing costs the airline zippo.

You need the 4 segments for status, there have been reports that a lack of those segments has resulted in a very hard landing.